Statutory Rules of Northern Ireland
1996 No. 182

AGRICULTURE
The Bovine Animals (Enforcement of Community Purchase Scheme) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996

Made
1st May 1996

Coming into operation
1st May 1996

The Department of Agriculture, being a Department designated(1) for the purposes of section 2(2) of the European Communities Act 1972(2) in relation to the common agricultural policy of the European Community, in exercise of the powers conferred on it by the said section 2(2) and of every other power enabling it in that behalf, hereby makes the following Regulations:—

Citation and commencement

1.  These Regulations may be cited as the Bovine Animals (Enforcement of Community Purchase Scheme) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996 and shall come into operation on 1st May 1996.

Interpretation

2.—(1) The Interpretation Act (Northern Ireland) 1954(3) shall apply to these Regulations as it applies to a Measure of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

(2) In these Regulations—

(a)
“approved operator” means, as the case may be, the operator of a rendering plant, licensed under Article 6(1) of the Specified Bovine Material (Northern Ireland) Order 1996(4) or the operator of an incinerator approved under regulation 12(2) of the Specified Bovine Material (Treatment and Disposal) Regulations (Northern Ireland) 1996(5);

(b)
“the Commission Regulation” means Commission Regulation (EC) No. 716/96(6) adopting exceptional support measures for the beef market in the United Kingdom;

(c)
“Community provision” means a provision of the Commission Regulation specified in the Schedule;

(d)
“licensed operator” means the owner or occupier of a slaughterhouse licensed under the Slaughter-houses Act (Northern Ireland) 1953(7); and

(e)
“the scheme” means the scheme, introduced by the Commission Regulation, for the purchase of bovine animals which do not show clinical signs of bovine spongiform encephalopathy and which were, during a period of three months prior to their sale, present on a holding in the United Kingdom.

Offences

3.—(1) Where there is a contravention of any Community provision referred to in Column (1) of Part I of the Schedule, the licensed operator in whose premises the contravention occurred shall be guilty of an offence.

(2) Where there is a contravention of any Community provision referred to in Column (1) of Part II of the Schedule, the approved operator in whose premises the contravention occurred shall be guilty of an offence.

Penalties

4.  A person guilty of an offence under regulation 3 shall be liable on conviction on indictment to a fine, and on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding level 5 on the standard scale.

Sealed with the Official Seal of the Department of Agriculture on

L.S.
P. T. Toal
Assistant Secretary
1st May 1996.

Regulation 3

SCHEDULECommunity Provisions

Part IApplicable to Licensed Operators

Column 1
Column 2

Provision of the Commission Regulation
Subject matter

Article 1(2)
Requirement that heads, internal organs and carcases be permanently stained

Article 1(2)
Requirement that stained material be transported in sealed containers to specially approved incinerators or rendering plants

Article 1(2)
Prohibition on any part of an animal slaughtered under the scheme entering the human or animal food chains or being used for cosmetic or pharmaceutical products

Article 1(3)
Requirement that no bovine animal intended for human consumption be present in a slaughterhouse when animals are being slaughtered under the scheme

Article 1(3)
Requirement that, where animals to be slaughtered under the scheme need to be lairaged prior to slaughter, they are kept separate from bovine animals intended for human or animal consumption

Article 1(3)
Requirement that, where it is necessary to store products derived from animals slaughtered under the scheme, such products be stored separately from meat or other products intended for human or animal consumption

Part IIApplicable to Approved Operators

Article 1(2)
Requirement that stained material be processed and destroyed

Article 1(2)
Prohibition on any part of an animal slaughtered under the scheme entering the human or animal food chains or being used for cosmetic or pharmaceutical products

Article 1(3)
Requirement that, where it is necessary to store products derived from animals slaughtered under the scheme, such products shall be stored separately from meat or other products intended for human or animal consumption

Explanatory Note

(This note is not part of the Regulations.)
These Regulations make provision for the enforcement of certain of the requirements of Commission Regulation (EC) No. 716/96, adopting exceptional support measures for the beef market in the United Kingdom. That Regulation authorises the United Kingdom to introduce a scheme for the purchase of any bovine animal aged over 30 months which does not exhibit any clinical sign of BSE and which was, during a period of at least three months prior to its sale, present on a holding located on United Kingdom territory. Various requirements are specified as to the slaughter, treatment and disposal of animals subject to that scheme.
Regulation 3 creates offences in respect of the provisions of the Commission Regulation referred to in Column 1 (and described in Column 2) of the Schedule.


(1)
S.I. 1972/1811

(2)
1972 c. 68; section 2 is subject to Schedule 2 to that Act and is to be read with S.I. 1984/703 (N.I. 3) and S.I. 1994/2795 (N.I. 15)

(3)
1954 c. 33 (N.I.)

(4)
S.R. 1996 No. 133

(5)
S.R. 1996 No. 134

(6)
O.J. No. L99, 19.4.96, p. 14

(7)
1953 c. 21 (N.I.)